Saturday, June 28th

What a wonderful morning! The seas were calm and we had brilliant sunny skies. The crew of Captain Brad, naturalists Sean and Corey and a group of intrepid passengers headed west in search of orcas and humpback whales. Just off Beechey head, we encountered a humpback whale. It was a fantastic way to start the trip, and both passengers and crew to see this magnificent animal as it headed into magnificent cetacean. We were thrilled as many of our guests were able some nice pictures of the whale "fluking", showing us its massive tail flukes as it went on a deep dive. After this wonderful encounter, we headed to Race Rocks, where we had a rare encounter (for this time of year) of a large California sea lion and several harbour seals. With our wildlife tour not finished, we headed into Parry Bay to show our customers a large eagle's nest and were thrilled as one of its occupants gave us a fly by. To top off the tour, we watched a beautiful great blue heron sitting on top of a forest of bull kelp.

For our afternoon trip, we travelled just a short distance outside the harbour as the humpback whale we were visiting in the morning had travelled a significant distance east. As always, is was a pleasure to show our guests these magnificent mammals. Once a rarity in the waters near Victoria due to whaling, they are becoming quite common in the summer and fall. We decided to leave the humpback whale and made a circle out west to see what else we could find. Near a shipping lane marker known as Victor Golf, our sharp-eyed captain spotted a fin. It did not take us long to realize that we had found ourselves a killer whale. It turned out to be one of the most famous transient orcas on our coast, Pender or T14, as he is known to scientists. What a thrill it was to see this top predator - it was a delight for both passengers and crew.

On the evening trip, we encountered Pender south of Trial Island. Our delighted guests were awed by the size of this large orca and we were thrilled with several great passes. The weather was truly amazing this evening. It was warm, calm and quiet, nothing really to hear but the sounds of the whale's blows. We enjoyed our time with this incredible whale, but like this afternoon, we really wanted to show our passengers the whale "double header" - orca and humpback. We found the humpback about 6 miles southwest of Pender. It would prove to be a wonderful conclusion to our wildlife experience. We had our vessel, the Orca Spirit, stopped well away from the humpback whale and watched as it travelled in a circular pattern foraging when it did something spectacular, surfacing not more than ten metres off our port side. What a thrill! To finish our evening adventure, we stopped outside the harbour and were able to view the Tall Ships Festival. All in all, it was a great evening and a wonderful day.